A San Diego Police Department officer resigned from his post after he accidentally locked himself in the backseat with a woman for more than an hour while he was transporting her to the Las Colinas Women's Detention Center.
As per California Law, the San Diego Police Department released its internal investigation into then-Officer Anthony Hair and the events that transpired on Aug. 15, 2023. The investigation resulted in Hair's resignation the following month.
On the night of Aug. 15, 2023, the two-year police veteran, Hair was one of the officers assigned to help with the arrest of two people suspected of car theft. One of the people arrested was an unidentified woman who also had a bench warrant out for her arrest.
Hair was asked to take the woman to the police headquarters and then transfer her to the Las Colinas Detention Center in Santee.
Conversation Between Hair and the Woman, Moans Recorded on Body Camera
A body camera worn by Hair captured the conversation he and the female detainee had on their way to the police headquarters.
The woman is heard asking the office if he's married.
Hair responds by asking, "Why are you asking that?"
"You're not too bad. What's it gonna hurt me if I work the system, you know what I mean? That's the way I see s---t," she answers.
Hair continued driving towards police headquarters. Minutes later the body camera microphone picked up moans coming from the backseat.
'Don't Say That Right Now Because Everything is Being Recorded'
The woman then asks Hair if he's single.
"Yeah, But you're not," he says, before the conversation turns illicit.
"I'm down to f--- right now," the woman is heard saying.
"Don't say that right now...Don't say that right now because everything is being recorded right now," Hair retorts.
Hair Then Turned Off His Camera and Then Parked the Vehicle in a Dark Residential Street
As they continued to make their way towards their destination, there isn't much that can be heard between the pair until Hair asks the woman what she was doing in the backseat.
His police cruiser then slowed and Hair turned off his body camera. According to the GPS tracking system inside Hair's police cruiser, Hair's car quickly slowed to seven miles per hour before turning down a dark residential street and halting the cruiser at around 1.34 a.m. just blocks away from Las Colinas.
Hair Then Called a Fellow Officer for Help After Getting Locked in the Backseat
More than twenty minutes after the police cruiser stopped, Hair called a fellow officer asking if he had a master key for the patrol cars. According to CBS8, In a subsequent interview, the unnamed officer described the conversation to internal affairs investigators.
"I heard and noticed Officer Hair had a panicky voice," said the officer. "I asked him if he was okay. He said, yes, and then asked if I had my patrol car key with me...I asked why he was asking and what did he need. Officer Hair then asked me If I could go meet him. I asked him his location and he said, near Cottonwood... I asked him why he needed me, and he said he would tell me when I got there. He said he was really embarrassed."
After some back and forth, Hair finally said that he was locked in the backseat of his police cruiser with a woman that he was transporting to Las Colinas. At 2:40 a.m., after more than an hour in the backseat with the woman, a supervisor arrived and opened the door.
Hair Claimed He was Locked in the Backseat While Checking on the Woman, Investigation Found Traces of Semen on His Belt
Throughout the investigation, Hair maintained that he was checking on the woman and the car door accidentally shut on him.
As for his body camera being turned off, Hair told investigators that he knocked the camera off of its clip while getting out of the cruiser.
Investigators later interviewed the woman who said that nothing inappropriate happened in the backseat of the cruiser. The department did test Hair's clothes for semen and found traces on his belt. Hair resigned on September 14, 2023, less than a month after the incident.
